A given data processing system may be configured in many ways. Some of the configuration options are set by varying the hardware (e.g. number and capacity of disk drives). Other configuration parameters are set within configuration files stored by the computer. An example of such a configuration file stored within a data processing system is the CONFIG.SYS file within personal computers such as the IBM Personal System/2 computers running under the Operating System/2 program (IBM, Personal System/2, and Operating System/2 are trade marks of International Business Machines Corporation). An example of the parameters set by such configurations files is the COUNTRY statement indicating the appropriate national character set to be displayed by the computer or DEVICE statements indicating which device driver code is to be used for the peripherals attached to the computer.
As well as the configuration parameters relating to the computer itself, the configuration files also contain parameters determined by the software installed upon the computer. An example of such a parameter would be PATH statements which indicate in which file directories the computer should search for files requested from the operating system command line. Particular pieces of software may also require a particular buffer size to run effectively, and this can be set by the BUFFER statement.
It is desirable that computer systems should be able to be used by persons not having a detailed understanding of all the configuration options of a computer and the knowledge of how to change them. Accordingly, it is known for computer programs automatically to add statements to the configuration files when they are installed. This has the result that a novice user can merely insert a diskette holding a copy of the program he wishes to install and type a single command such as INSTALL. This start a program running which will copy the program form the diskette into the storage of the computer and make all the necessary changes to the configuration file.
In order to further simplify the installation of computer programs systems have been produced which distribute software over a data processing network. New software files, or updates to files already held by a workstation may be transmitted to the workstation over communication lines without the workstation user having to be involved in handling diskettes or initiating the installation.
It is a constant aim in the field of data processing to produce systems that are easier to use. The invention is concerned with this problem.